Around the turn of the millennium, there was a little hype in Europe about electronic dub-music from France with influences of DnB, jazz and Hip Hop. On samplers, it was called »French Dub Connection« and from Ibiza to Reykjavik, the sound was played, listened to and rehashed over and over. Lazer Sword, who originally come from the far away San Francisco, seem to have their roots in this European sound nonetheless – after all, it rattles, clackers, bubbles, boinks and whizzes like a laser sword. It sounds a bit like an audiobook for R2D2. The whole thing reminds the listener of a sound-space-sculpture with snippets of vocal echoes, humming bass rolls and hectic snare-HiHat-grooves on stable, driving kicks. There’s craziness on the controller, which can either be danced to with courage or stared at in disbelief. And even when one does dance, there are still contemplative moments. The image of a quiet, split bust really was the best choice for the cover, because the brain simultaneously works on two levels. The name of the record, »Memory«, has probably been chosen because no DJ will play the record before 5 o’clock in the morning, and so it will be the last thing people remember before feeling the urgent need to drag head and feet into bed and get some long overdue sleep. The album is released on Modeselektor’s Monkeytown Records, so a certain kind of attention is already guaranteed for the record’s makers Lando Kal and Low Limit, who work from Berlin and L.A.
Memory
